Dostoevsky’s first ever novel

“Poor Folk” by Fyodor Dostoevsky

This is a story about an exchange of letters between two characters, distant cousins Makar Devushkin and Varvara Dobroselova. They both live on the same street opposite to each other on their respective terrible apartments, but yet very rarely physically meet. And instead, they write to each other.

The letters show the dire conditions that they live in, as well as the poor situations surrounding them, told in a first-person experience. And the more the book progresses, the more we get to know about the backstories of these two characters. The contrast between how poor people and rich people live are also very well described throughout the exchanges of the letters.

It is an overall bland novel, however, where apart from the interesting personal history the letters are mainly filled with neighborhood gossip and rants, as well as loads of unnecessary anecdotes that did not lead to any bigger story in the book.

Nevertheless, this is Dostoevsky’s first ever novel, which shows his earliest form of ideas and raw writing style. An important reading anchor before reading his more famous novels, in order to see his growth as a writer.

And the premise of writing a book based on an exchange of letters is truly refreshing, on a topic that was still foreign to a lot of people back then, which shows how the poor live their lives. No wonder that the novel became such a nationwide hit after publishing in 1846, and was dubbed as Russia’s first social novel.